The gateway to Batemans Bay?

The gateway to Batemans Bay?

I JUST went down to give blood at the mobile clinic in the bowling club carpark on Friday. As I was waiting my turn, I just happened to gaze across the intersection at the gateway to the Eurobodalla or, at least, Batemans Bay. It’s the Information and Visitors Centre.

Next time you go past, just run your eye over it. Scungy, I think is the term my children use.

Certainly not an inviting looking place, although it could be - prime position, plenty of free parking, lovely shady trees. Talking of trees, check out the ones growing in the guttering! Almost need a DA to have them cut down. Heaven help us if the council wants to take them out, the Greens will jump up onto the roof and start hugging them for sure.

Doesn’t the Eurobodalla council have a person that checks out their (our) buildings for such maintenance? Looks like council hasn’t learnt from the last building that wasn’t checked and maintained, which comes to my mind. Remember the Coila Lake hall that was regularly used by the people of Tuross Heads for everything including weddings, sailing club events, yoga, displays, the list can go on and on. Eaten out by termites if I am not mistaken, out of commission for a couple of years. Council had to spend around $200,000 to repair the building. A pest inspection once a year would have saved us that waste of money.

So where will council go with the visitors centre? Will they wait until the trees in the gutter get that big that the sawmill up the road wants to produce timber from them? Maybe they will wait until the guttering gets so heavy that it falls on some unfortunate person who happens to be walking past at the time.

These buildings are our buildings. They should be maintained, not built and then left to the elements. Remember the stitch in time saying? Oh that’s right, it’s 2013, let’s just throw it away and get a new one.